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Event Detail

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

“Who’s Afraid of Livable Streets?”

Cities around the world are reversing decades of
automobile-oriented planning and policy and redesigning streets to
prioritize the needs of pedestrians, cyclists and transit riders.
Yet, despite successful efforts and a growing body of evidence of
economic, public health and environmental benefits, political
opposition to Livable Streets is deeply entrenched and difficult to
overcome.For the last ten years, Paul White and Aaron Naparstek have
worked to bring transformative change to the streets of New York
City. In this Halloween session they will explore the myths and
realities of American urban planning and transportation policy and
provide advocates with tools to frame the argument, scare away the
Livable Streets bogeymen, and create change in their own
communities.Paul is the Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives,
New York City’s leading advocate for better bicycling, walking and
public transportation. In 2011, he was selected to receive
the Rockefeller Foundation’s Jane Jacobs Medal, which recognizes
people whose creative uses of the urban environment build a more
diverse, dynamic, and equitable city. Paul relishes his weekends,
largely spent frolicking on the Brooklyn waterfront with his three
year-old daughter Anna Jane.Aaron is a pioneering interactive media producer and livable
streets activist. He is the founder and former editor-in-chief of
Streetsblog, an advocacy-journalism project has played an
instrumental role in transforming transportation and urban planning
policy in New York and cities around the world. Currently living in
Cambridge, Massachusetts with his wife and two young sons,
Naparstek recently completed a Loeb Fellowship at Harvard's
Graduate School of Design and is now working at MIT's Department of
Urban Studies and Planning as a Visiting Scholar.